Thomas Gunn Unveils New Digital Chart Management System

MarineLink.com

Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Photo: Thomas Gunn

With chart and nautical publication management highlighted as one of the most common reasons for deficiency detentions by Port State Control (PSC), ship operators are calling for new and effective navigation solutions.

The features of Thomas Gunn’s new Voyager 4 digital chart management system, launched this month following successful sea trials, provide ship owners and ship managers with the tools they need to ensure that Safety of Navigation standards on board meet PSC and vetting inspection requirements, the manufacturer said.

New Voyager is a complete British Admiralty (BA) update service that includes both the Annual Summary of NMs and Cumulative List of NMs as well as NAVAREA warnings, Loose Leaf publication updates, updates for BA charts and updates for both AVCS and the Admiralty Information Overlay (AIO). It also comes complete with file compression to increase efficiency and minimize data transmission costs and free access to Thomas Gunn’s Vessel Management Service – a web portal for ship managers to view individual vessel holdings and monitor a vessel’s update and supply status.

“Voyager 4 is designed to prevent information overload and provide both on board and shore based personnel with optimum information management,” said Mike Bailey, Head of Product Development at Thomas Gunn. “Over the last three years, the detention rate for SOLAS class vessels has been running at an average of 6% of ships per year, with 12.8% of the deficiencies in 2011 relating to Safety of Navigation and 6% of all deficiencies, relating specifically to Maintenance of Charts and Publications – so the statistics on navigation deficiencies make serious reading. With vessels increasingly manned by less experienced crews and, at the same time, often bearing greater workloads, Voyager helps to remove the risk of human error and avoid port inspection issues.”

According to Thomas Gunn, innovations and enhancements in Voyager 4 include new route-planning tool to make it even easier to identify, update and download information needed for a vessel’s voyage including vessel traffic separation schemes and access to added value information such as piracy and port information all via a single chart based interface; new NAVAREA warnings to provide a complete update service; new AVCS and the AIO display providing access to global Temporary and Preliminary Notices and the Admiralty’s unique safety checks and expanded range of services including TG Loose Leaf updates, ICC Piracy information, Regs4ships and findaport.